Saturday, July 31, 2010

Heads of state write a few words in the guestbook at the Presidential Palace in Ba`abda. But when the Saudi King sat down to write in the guestbook, it was obvious that a Saudi official/calligrapher had already filled the page. Illiterate Saudi King, sat down and signed the page.

"President Obama warned Mahmoud Abbas in a letter that U.S.-Palestinian relations might suffer if the Palestinian leader refuses to resume direct peace talks with Israel, a senior Palestine Liberation Organization official said Saturday.The White House had no comment Saturday. However, the Obama administration has been pushing Abbas hard in recent days to move quickly to face-to-face negotiations."

"The use of sophisticated equipment in the foiling of alleged Israeli spies may be the first concrete illustration of the U.S. dilemma. According to Lebanese officials, Israeli analysts and a Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity, Lebanon has redirected for use against Israel signal-detection equipment donated by France and intended to fight Islamic militants. "The technology used with Fatah Islam was used to detect Israeli spies and collaborators in Lebanon," said retired Col. Kamal Awar, a U.S.-trained former member of the Lebanese Special Forces who now publishes Defense 21, an Arabic-language military journal. "They discovered they were talking with the Israeli guy on the other side of the border.""

PS The first part of this article is entirely drawn from the claims by Hariri-run, Jihaz Al-Ma`lumat.

"One of the most troubling aspects of the destruction of al-Arakib was a report by CNN that the hundreds of Israeli riot police who stormed the village were accompanied by “busloads of cheering civilians.” Who were these civilians and why didn’t CNN or any outlet investigate further?" (thanks Olivia)

I have been away since end of May. There is much to tell about political developments and news from the Middle East. But where do I begin--as one song says? I really don't know where to begin. I feel as if I have to drip news country by country or even by theme? Do I start with a brief about developments at AlJazeera? Or about Saudi Arabia and its feuding factions?

"The position of trade unions has deteriorated significantly in Iraq. Unions in the electricity sector have been banned in a move that echoes Saddam Hussein's old ways. The Iraqi police raided and shut down trade union offices following a draconian ministerial decree.The order, issued on 20 July, "prohibits all trade union activities at the [electricity] ministry and its departments and sites". It orders the police "to close all trade union offices and bases and to take control of the union's assets, properties and documents, furniture and computers". It also instructs the ministry to take legal action against trade union officials under anti-terrorism laws." (thanks Shawna)

"But in a release of documents pertaining to Zinn, the bureau admitted that one of its investigations into the left-wing academic was prompted not by suspicion of criminal activity, but by Zinn's criticism of the FBI's record on civil rights investigations."

"The Anti-Defamation League describes itself as "fighting anti-Semitism, bigotry and extremism," but critics of the Jewish group's latest move say it has joined the ranks of some of the US's most bigoted organizations in its call to oppose the "Ground Zero mosque," a Muslim community center being built several blocks from the site of the World Trade Center." (thanks Olivia)

"The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Palestinian authorities in the West Bank to release Amer Abu Arfa, a correspondent for the Shihabnews agency who was convicted and imprisoned in connection with his news coverage." (thanks Rima)

"The nation's leading Jewish civil rights group has come out against the planned mosque and Islamic community center near ground zero, saying more information is needed about funding for the project and the location is ''counterproductive to the healing process.''" (thanks Sarah)

The Saudi King spent 245 minutes in Lebanon and that did not stop the Lebanese from filling the entire capital with huge, gigantic pictures of the illiterate King, and writing fawning tributes to his oppression. That proves my theory: that most Lebanese would do anything to prostrate before oil wealth. (picture by comrade Raed)

Friday, July 30, 2010

You have to read this study about prospects of war between Israel and Lebanon. What attracted my attention was this section: "First, Hezbollah could initiate hostilities. The recent passing of Lebanese Shia cleric Muhammad Hussein Fadl’Allah, a man with many enemies inside and outside Lebanon, could spark strife within Lebanon in which Hezbollah could decide to attack Israel as a means of unifying its supporters." I mean, this is so ignorant that it is rather funny. Very funny in deed. It is rather striking that fanatical supporters of Israel in the US think that by virtue of their love for Israeli war crimes, they are natural Middle East experts without having to study or learn. (thanks Norman)

Almost every day--no, every single day--I get asked by strangers or by people I know whether there is going to be war. I keep saying: there won't be war. Israel has no more tricks up its dirty sleeves.

"Steve Jandali is the Syrian's... To others he may be Steve Jobs, but that is because they know not, so forgive them. But the Homsian Steve surely puts every Lebanese expatriate in his little waist pocket even if he discovered a cure for cancer, of which the Syrian Steve suffers!"

"But most view the U.S. with suspicion, support for American involvement in the fight against extremists has declined, and nearly two-thirds want U.S. troops out of neighboring Afghanistan.Nearly six in 10 Pakistanis polled described the U.S. as an enemy and only one in 10 called it a partner."

""The 105-carat diamond was seized by the East India Company after the capture of Punjab in 1849 and later presented as a gift to Queen Victoria...Mr Cameron said returning the legendary diamond to India would set a dangerous precedent for other priceless cultural items held in British museums." " (thanks Nu`man)

"Mr Ben Ali, nearly 74, often boasts of running a stable, modestly prosperous, well-educated country, with the Arab world’s most liberal legislation for women’s rights. But democracy is another matter. After his election to a fifth term in October, with 90% of the vote, his fist got tighter than usual. Amnesty International says that dissidents are held in dire conditions; those still free are constantly harassed. According to the human-rights body, security agents infiltrate opposition groups to take control of them, stifling open politics. Moreover, according to a book published last year in France but banned in Tunisia, Mr Ben Ali’s family and influential wife, Leila Trabelsi, own a number of lucrative monopolies that hamper the free market.The press is weak too. The state filters the internet, often confiscates editions of newspapers that dare publish dissident views, and jails independent journalists such as Fahem Boukadous, who was sentenced this month to four years in prison for reporting worker unrest in the mining region of Gafsa in 2008." (thanks Khelil)

I will sign volume one of my book البوح الغاضب on Friday, August 6th at T-Marbouta cafe in Hamra. Will provide additional details. It is probably around 7:00PM.

"Anti-gay protesters gathered Thursday next to several hundred gay activists preparing to march in the eighth annual Jerusalem Gay Pride parade, calling them to "get out of Jerusalem." The protesters, led by extreme rightist activists Baruch Marzel and Itamar Ben Gvir, hoisted banners reading "sick perverts - get out of Jerusalem." "It is a disease of choice, and a man can change his taste and his ways," Marzel said, adding "when someone has AIDS they tell them not to infect others, so why are these people allowed to march here in Jerusalem and infect us with their disease?"" (thanks Dalia)

"Yesterday, two reservists accidentally entered Nablus via the village Beit Iba, west of the city. But this story had a different ending. Palestinian policemen stopped them and demanded that they hand over their weapons. The two refused. But shortly afterward, they were escorted out of Nablus and handed back to the IDF. The incident hardly even made the news. It was routine. Dozens of Israelis who mistakenly entered PA territory in recent years have been brought back safely.This radical change reflects the level of security coordination between Israel and the PA in the West Bank. This is why the IDF has advised the government to make more confidence-building gestures, like allowing 50 armored vehicles that Russia gave the PA to enter the West Bank."

Oh, yes. The US is very interested in giving the Lebanese Army the weapons that can deal with internal dissent and Palestinian refugees but not the weapons necessary to deal with Israeli aggression against Lebanon. "According to a statement released by the U.S. embassy in Lebanon, Vershbow visited Beirut to reaffirm U.S. commitment to providing security assistance to Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).Washington also expressed its willingness to train and equip the LAF, said the statement."

"The Obama administration is seeking to make it easier for the FBI to compel companies to turn over records of an individual's Internet activity without a court order if agents deem the information relevant to a terrorism or intelligence investigation."

"The United States is currently the world biggest weapons supplier — holding 30 per cent of the market — but the Obama administration has begun modifying export control regulations in hopes of enlarging the U.S. market share, according to U.S. officials."

"The former interrogator for Unit 504 of Military Intelligence known as "Captain George" has been appointed as adviser on Arab affairs for the commander of the Jerusalem District Police, sources have told Haaretz. As part of his duties, "George" will oversee the sensitive relationship between the police and the Arab community in the district. "George," who holds the rank of major, became famous when he was accused of torture by Mustafa Dirani - who was abducted by IDF commandos in 1994 from his home in Southern Lebanon, and brought to Israel for questioning. The Hezbollah man sued Israel for NIS 6 million in damages. In 2004, he testified in court about being raped with a baton by soldiers under "George's" command." (thanks Farah)

"Immigrants applying for marriage licenses are being asked by local rabbinical courts to produce ritual wedding contracts from their parents, grandparents and great-grandparents or other often unattainable documents to prove their Jewishness." (thanks Sarah)

"Israel is aiding an exiled Arab sheikh who is vying to seize control of a strategically important Gulf emirate only 40 miles from Iran.The Israeli ambassador to London, Ron Prosor, has met Sheikh Khalid bin Saqr al-Qasimi, the exiled crown prince of Ras al-Khaimeh (RAK), who asked him to help with his campaign to oust the leadership of the northernmost state in the United Arab Emirates. The meeting took place in London in March and has been followed by phone calls and wider assistance and advice, according to records of the relationship seen by the Guardian."

You read the whole article but only to justify the last bogus theory as to why Lebanon arrested all those spies. I mean, Syrian and Egyptian intelligence agencies are much adept at torture than the Lebanese intelligence agencies and thus there should have been arrests of scores of Israeli spies in Syria or Egypt or Iran, if you are to believe the stupid theory of this German dumb spy: ""Most of the Arab intelligence services are completely different from what we in the West are familiar with when we think about intelligence services," he says now. "Most of the work of the BND, for example, is to collect information of strategic, political or military value, and to understand, evaluate and analyze trends; not killing people and not torturing them. The Arab agencies see their primary task as preserving the regime or the leader and therefore, they are cruel and without limits. They are above the law; they are the law itself. They see themselves as a divine entity. They torture suspects relentlessly, so it is not surprising that many suspects are willing to confess to every crime. This is therefore one of the reasons why I believe they were also able to expose the Israeli spy ring in Lebanon."His evaluation stands in contrast to the suggestions made in the international media that they were exposed because of modern monitoring equipment provided by the U.S. to the Lebanese army."(thanks Olivia)

"A slightly less acerbic view was that of retired Col. Douglas Macgregor: “The idea that we are going to spend a trillion dollars to reshape the culture of the Islamic world is utter nonsense.”" (thanks Hassan)

"The immigration assistance group Nefesh B'Nefesh said it expects about 5,000 North American and British Jews to move to Israel in 2010, a new record for western immigration. This week alone, 1,000 newcomers on 23 flights from all over the world are scheduled to arrive, including 550 people from France, 101 from Britain, 54 from South Africa and eight from Australia." (thanks Sarah)

"At the end of this past May, on the other side of the globe, a tear-gas canister fired by theIsrael Defense Forces hit her in the face and blasted her left eye out of her head. The grandchild of Holocaust survivors and daughter of a man who was born in Israel and emigrated to the U.S., she had been protesting at a West Bank checkpoint the morning after the IDF had killed nine people aboard a Turkish aid flotilla bound for Gaza.As Henochowicz recently wrote of her blog icon, "I've had it since I made this blog, and it's proven oddly predictive. The older I get, the more ridiculous life seems." Back in the States and getting ready to resume school in the fall, she has referred to herself as "Cyclops" on the blog." (thanks Nasir)

"Israel, in contrast, is gradually relinquishing the rule of law and becoming a tribe. The killing of an Arab is immediately associated with "the Middle Eastern reality." A demand for restraint becomes "living in a bubble." A shrugging off of all inhibitions is now typical of relations between the right, including Kadima, and the creators of the news as purveyors of cheap thrills. It's clear that the passion to protect private property by imposing the death penalty is not what played the primary role here, but rather contempt for the life of an Arab." (thanks Bob)

""This is a declaration of war on the Bedouin residents," extreme left-wing activist Ezra Nawi proclaimed. Naomi, an activist from Jerusalem said: "An historical injustice is being performed here. These are people who lived here prior to the establishment of the State, which is now denying them of the most basic right for a roof over their heads. Most of them will be forced to live in the sands."" Extreme left-wing in Israel means somebody who accepts equality of people. (thanks Lidia)

"Are Palestinians the only group so blocked from making pages? Well, not really… after a little fiddling around, I discovered that al-Qaida Refugee ResearchNet and Nazi Refugee ResearchNet are filtered too." (thanks Olivia)

"The US has condemned as "irresponsible" the leak of 90,000 classified military records, saying their publication could threaten national security." This is from the administration that had promised transparency. (thanks Mohammad)

"Police released the head rabbi of a prominent yeshiva yesterday hours after arresting him for encouraging to kill non-Jews.Rabbi Yitzhak Shapira, head of the Od Yosef Hai Yeshiva and author of "The King's Torah," was arrested early yesterday morning at his home in the West Bank settlement of Yitzhar. His book describes how it is possible to kill non-Jews according to halakha (Jewish religious law )." (thanks Bob)

I need to write more about the subject of "the object of emulation" in Shi`ite thought and practice. But I need to be around my library in the US for that. The issue arose in my head because the son of Muhammad Husayn Fadlallah and his institutions are arguing that it is possible for followers of Fadlallah to continue emulating him. That requires a discussion.

"A report quietly submitted by IDF Military Advocate General Avichai Mandelblit to the United Nations two weeks ago regarding Israel’s conduct during Operation Cast Lead confirms the key findings of the Goldstone Report. The report (full version here), which documents 150 ongoing investigations, has outraged the Israeli Army. “It looks as though they were frightened by Goldstone,” remarked an IDF officer. Another military official expressed anger that after a previous IDF report asserting the legality of shelling civilian areas with white phosphorous, a chemical weapon, the Mandelblit report has issued recommendations limiting the munition’s use. “It looks like tying your own hands behind your back. Why should a weapon with which there is no problem be limited?” the official asked." (thanks Lidia)

The US puppets in Iraq are scrambling to save their reputation in history. Those who would push and shove to have their pictures taken with Bush or with any of his lowest assistants are now rewriting history and claiming that they had nothing to do with Bush or his occupation. I saw a segment of the TV memoirs of Adnan Pachachi and he insists that he did not allow himself to be used by the Americans: only the Shi`ite puppets were American puppets, he basically said. You also realize the sinister role that AlAkhdar Al-Ibrahimi played on behalf of the US, in Afghanistan and in Iraq. When Edward Said invited me to attend his honorary doctorate ceremony at AUB, I left when it was the turn to award one to Al-Akhdar Al-Ibrahimi. I had to explain to Said my reasoning.

Sunday, July 25, 2010

From the founding congress of the Hariri political party. The congress elected Sa`d Hariri as president, and his cousin Ahmad as secretary-general. Oh, posts are assigned purely on the basis of merit. Oh, yeah.

"Mr Sabbagh’s and Mr Khoury’s business practices were recently rebuked by British courts in a separate dispute over unpaid debts.Last night, Antoine Mattar, a director of CC Property, said the company donated to the Conservative Party “because we share the same values and philosophy.” He was unaware of links between the owners of the firm’s parent company and the PLO."

"A report by a U.S. government watchdog has found that the Israeli government's conduct in recent years - including delaying the transfer to Palestinian security forces of AK-47 rifles, radios, vehicles and uniforms - hampers U.S. efforts to train those forces in the West Bank." (thanks Olivia)

The last face of Shi`ite feudal leadership died yesterday. He was one of the most personally and politically corrupt zu`ama' in South Lebanon. The official eulogy of him by the highest Shi`ite religious authority, `Abdul-Amir Qabalan, was a testament to the power of sectarianism in all sects. He hailed him as someone who opposed Israel when he cooperated with the Israeli invasion in 1982 which installed Bashir Gemayyel--the worst Lebanese ever--as head of the pro-Israeli entity in Lebanon at the time. There is more, much more, to say about him. I should mention that I wrote a long article against him in Al-Akhbar a year ago. He wrote a long angry letter to the paper (only excerpts of which were published in "letters to the editor").

If the Lebanese Army is ready, it only means that the people of South Lebanon have to depend on themselves: "Head of the Lebanese Army Commando Unit Brigadier Shamel Roukoz said troops are ready to defend the country against Israel, as Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi reiterated warnings against sending aids ships from Lebanon to the besieged Gaza Strip.Speaking during a gathering in the Kesrouan town of Kfour Sunday, Roukoz said the army’s noblest mission was to defend the border in south Lebanon against any possible Israeli attack."

"A huge cache of secret US military files today provides a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and Nato commanders fear neighbouring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency.The disclosures come from more than 90,000 records of incidents and intelligence reports about the conflict obtained by the whistleblowers' website Wikileaks in one of the biggest leaks in US military history. The files, which were made available to the Guardian, the New York Timesand the German weekly Der Spiegel, give a blow-by-blow account of the fighting over the last six years, which has so far cost the lives of more than 320 British and more than 1,000 US troops. Their publication comes amid mounting concern that Barack Obama's "surge" strategy is failing and as coalition troops hunt for two US naval personnel captured by the Taliban south of Kabul on Friday." (thanks Dina)

"Mossad chief Meir Dagan visited Saudi Arabia recently, if unofficial reports published over the weekend on the WorldNetDaily website are accurate. The Internet news site attributed the story to Arab sources." (thanks Bob)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

"A newly revealed tape of Netanyahu in 2001, being interviewed while he thinks the cameras are off, shows him in a radically different light. In it, Netanyahu dismisses American foreign policy as easy to maneuver, boasts of having derailed the Oslo accords with political trickery, and suggests that the only way to deal with the Palestinians is to “beat them up, not once but repeatedly, beat them up so it hurts so badly, until it’s unbearable”" (thanks Ali)

"Which is crueler? Expelling an urban family from its home in Jerusalem's Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, or bulldozing a meager tent encampment of shepherds living on private Jordan Valley land they leased, destroying their water tanks, their tents and their sheep pens, and expelling families with many children from the land on which they live? It's hard to say. But while the Sheikh Jarrah expulsions are attracting interest in Israel and elsewhere, hardly anyone notices or protests what's going on in the Jordan Valley." (thanks Sana)

"Gaza's top Tawjihi student felt like she broke the siege against her with determination and the light from her mobile phone, she told Ma'an the day she received the news of her success. Asma Amin Tubasi from Rafah remembers her father telling her to stop studying using the old oil lamp after a series of accidents in the Gaza Strip saw children injured and homes burned due to unsafe fuel smuggled in from Egypt."

"Dramatic increases in infant mortality, cancer and leukaemia in the Iraqi city of Fallujah, which was bombarded by US Marines in 2004, exceed those reported by survivors of the atomic bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945, according to a new study." (thanks Rasha)

"The country is in thrall to such anti-democratic sentiment and mob rule racism, manifesting at such breakneck speed that it is hard to keep up. In the last few months alone two Arab citizens of Israel were "disappeared" by the state's secret police; an Arab member of the Knesset was stripped of her parliamentary privileges for being on the Gaza aid flotilla; and now a Palestinian man from Jerusalem has just been convicted of rape after pretending to be Jewish and having consensual sex. This verdict, in effect turning the obfuscation of race into a criminal offence, also reveals the extent to which Israelis consider Palestinians to be abhorrent. Meanwhile, the Israeli children of migrant workers are threatened with expulsion, as a government campaign warns against hiring foreign workers. Zero tolerance for the "other" in Israel has widened to include anyone questioning a twisted concept of loyalty to the state. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel (Acri) lists 14 antidemocratic laws currently working their way through parliament, from the demand that Arab citizens pledge allegiance to a "Jewish democracy" to attempts to gag Israeli rights groups. Acri representatives are denounced as "Arab-lovers" and "traitors" when they attend parliamentary hearings. All this has widespread support – in fact, one of the few causes to bring thousands of Israelis on to the streets was a recent ultra-orthodox protest for the right to segregate Ashkenazi children, of European origin, from their Middle Eastern Jewish classmates. Israeli human rights campaigners, appalled by this escalation of intolerance and racism, point to the three-week pounding of Gaza in 2008-9 as the opener of floodgates. Yael Ben Yefet, a Tel Aviv council member and the subject of a hate-deluge for supporting migrant workers, says that "something snapped" after the Gaza assault, in which about 1,400 Palestinians were killed. "It released Israel from the last of its humanitarian constraints," she says. "Now everything is possible."" (thanks Abbas)

"How did you manage to create and develop relations with Arab and Muslim ambassadors, despite the diplomatic situation?

"That is the secret of quiet diplomacy, and activity behind the scenes. One of my friends is Egyptian Ambassador Maged Abdelaziz, even though my first husband was killed on the Egyptian front during the Yom Kippur War. I have friendly relations with Oman Ambassador Fuad al-Hinai, whose wife is Oman's ambassador to the United States. I had good relations with Saudi Ambassador Khalid Alnafisee. Qatar's ambassador recently expressed regret at my departure. I am particularly proud of the genuine friendship and closeness that came about with the U.S. ambassador, Rice; that's a wonderful souvenir to bring back to Israel."" (thanks Hani)

"The case involved a group of activists who broke into and vandalised a Brighton factory run by engineering firm EDO MBM. The company was making parts for use in the bomb-aiming equipment on Israeli F16 warplanes. The invasion shut the factory for a week and caused £187,000 worth of damage. But five men and women who appeared in court claimed they had done nothing wrong under criminal damage law. The law says someone is not guilty of causing damage if they believed it was necessary for the immediate protection of someone else's property." (thanks Chris)

"The Dove World Outreach Center, a non-denominational church in Gainesville FL, is planning to mark this year's anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks with a little bonfire of Korans, the holy book of Islam. They even have a Facebook page with a mission statement to justify their actions:" (thanks Olivia)

I mean, I dont remember that Zionist propaganda was that dumb. I mean, it has always been dumb but this dumb? They now remind me of Ba`thist propaganda of the 1960s: "A car bomb that exploded July 15 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, may indicate that Mexican drug cartels are being assisted by Hizbullah terrorists." To get American public sympathy, I expect Zionist propagandists to soon find links between JFK's assassin and Hizbullah.

"Similar things have happened elsewhere. The incarceration rate in Britain has more than doubled, and that in Japan increased by half, over the period. But the trend has been sharper in America than in most of the rich world, and the disparity has grown. It is explained neither by a difference in criminality (the English are slightly more criminal than Americans, though less murderous), nor by the success of the policy: America’s violent-crime rate is higher than it was 40 years ago...Many states have mandatory minimum sentences, which remove judges’ discretion to show mercy, even when the circumstances of a case cry out for it. “Three strikes” laws, which were at first used to put away persistently violent criminals for life, have in several states been applied to lesser offenders. The war on drugs has led to harsh sentences not just for dealing illegal drugs, but also for selling prescription drugs illegally. Peddling a handful can lead to a 15-year sentence." (thanks Bassam)

Friday, July 23, 2010

As I was responding to questions after my talk in Nahr Al-Barid, a Lebanese Army convoy passed outside and ordered the cars to be moved. The host was asked to deliver the message for owners of the cars to move them. I stole the microphone and said: the Lebanese Army is hopefully on its way to liberate Palestine. Please move your cars. My host begged me to stop.

Before you enter Nahr Al-Barid, you pass through an office of Lebanese Army Intelligence. They write down your names and check your ID cards. As they were writing in old-fashioned notebooks, I observed to the officer: you badly need computers for your work here. He bristled at me: No, we are quite comfortable this way.

"On Monday, Sabbar Kashur, a young Palestinian man from East Jerusalem, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for something called “rape by deception.” Apparently, Mr. Kashur had consensual sex with a Jewish Israeli woman after assuring her that he was also Jewish. When she found out that he had lied to her, she went to the police.Imagine living in a society where you can say, “I wish I had never slept with you. I’m going to the cops.” Only it’s not funny because Sabbar Kashur will probably go to jail for a year and a half. Meanwhile, efforts to combat actual sexual violence are undermined by a cynical distortion of the term rape. The real crime here, of course, is miscegenation. Anyone from the US should recognize the Jerusalem District Court’s ruling for what it is: an anti-miscegenation measure on par with the now-defunct US laws against “race mixing” that were once used to uphold white supremacy. For most of us in the US, dating across race lines now seems about as edgy as wearing white after Labor Day. You can read Angela Davis’ Women, Race and Class for a reminder of how white Americans’ obsession with “racial purity” was codified to keep African Americans and white women in their place. That’s the paradigm in which we should understand this case." (thanks Dina)

"Meanwhile, it’s been decades since Israel’s air force faced another in the air.It has come to specialize in bombing civilian infrastructure and militias with no air defenses.There is not much for the U.S. Air Force to learn from that.Similarly, the Israeli navy confronts no real naval threat.Its experience in interdicting infiltrators, fishermen, and humanitarian aid flotillas is not a model for the U.S. Navy to study.Israel’s army, however, has had lessons to impart.Now in its fifth decade of occupation duty, it has developed techniques of pacification, interrogation, assassination, and drone attack that inspired U.S. operations in Fallujah, Abu Ghraib, Somalia, Yemen, and Waziristan.Recently, Israel has begun to deploy various forms of remote-controlled robotic guns.These enable operatives at far-away video screens summarily to execute anyone they view as suspicious.Such risk-free means of culling hostile populations could conceivably come in handy in some future American military operation, but I hope not.I have a lot of trouble squaring the philosophy they embody with the values Americans traditionally aspired to exemplify. It is sometimes said that, to its credit, Israel does not ask the United States to fight its battles for it; it just wants the money and weapons to fight them on its own.Leave aside the question of whether Israel’s battles are or should also be America’s.It is no longer true that Israel does not ask us to fight for it.The fact that prominent American apologists for Israel were the most energetic promoters of the U.S. invasion of Iraq doesnot, of course, prove that Israel was the instigator of that grievous misadventure.But the very same people are now urging an American military assault on Iran explicitly to protect Israel and to preserve its nuclear monopoly in the Middle East." (thanks Sultan)

"Hundreds of allegations have been logged into Egypt’s “torture diary,” a chronicle of claimed police brutality compiled by the Nadeem Center for Rehabilitation of Victims of Violence, an independent victims advocacy group in Cairo."

“By January 1975, the Saudis had invested a massive $9.3 billion in Britain, of which $800 million was in the public sector – a total investment equivalent to around £20 billion today.” from Mark Curtis’s “Secret Affairs"...pg.118. (thanks Nu`man)

"A 23-year-old Arab man sustained serious injuries after being attacked in Tiberias, allegedly for talking to a young Jewish woman. Police are still searching for the suspected assailant, a 19-year-old who fled the scene."

"The smugglers who sneak consumer goods, cash and weapons into the blockaded Gaza Strip have cut hundreds of holes in an underground steel wall Egypt is building along the border to try to stop them, two Egyptian security officials said Thursday.Rare footage filmed by AP Television News showed one smuggler cutting through the barrier with a blowtorch. The smuggler, his face covered by a scarf, said it took him five hours to breach the obstacle. Hundreds of tunnels running under the Egypt-Gaza border deliver consumer goods to the Hamas-run territory, bypassing a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt three years ago. In recent weeks, Israel has eased its blockade by allowing most consumer goods into Gaza again through land crossings, and smugglers say they are more concerned about the competition from legitimate imports than about the wall." (thanks Sultan)

"The defense establishment has advised the government to allow the Palestinian Authority to import 50 Russian-made armored vehicles - something Israel has been refusing to do for five years now." (thanks Olivia)

So much to write about Nahr Al-Barid. So much anger when you visit. And you think that the Lebanese state and its army and people could not find sources of "heroism"--imagined of course--except by destroying a refugee camp?

The Friends of Israel Initiative is an international operation and was first launched in Paris on 31 May – the same day that Israeli soldiers boarded the Mavi Marmara in international waters and killed nine activists. The organisation was reportedly established by Dore Gold, an American born Israeli who heads the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and was formerly an adviser to Ariel Sharon and the current Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.[1]"(thanks Anthony)

"But Berman could have found an another example even closer at hand. Anwar Sadat was jailed for 2 years by the British in Egypt in 1942 for actually plotting with German spies, but his sins were conveniently forgotten after he signed the 1978 peace treaty with Israel.)" (thanks Nader)

""And I'm afraid I know too much about the history of the conflict to think of Israel as just a tiny, little island surrounded by a sea of ravening wolves and so on. I mean, I know quite a lot about how that state was founded, and the amount of violence and dispossession that involved. And I'm a prisoner of that knowledge. I can't un-know it."" (thanks Redoune)

""I was familiar with Israel before coming here," he tells the Yedioth Ahronoth daily. "In the framework of my previous positions as air force commander and chief of staff, I had a great relationship with your military industries and with Israel Aerospace Industries."For years Israel has aided our war on terror through the exchange of information and the sale of military technology and equipment," says Perera."

"The Harley-riding king of Jordan spent at least several days touring Northern California on his motorcycle with American taxpayers footing a major portion of the bill for his security." (thanks Shehadeh)

"Israel is not the only place that supervises teachers and lecturers for fear they will impart the wrong kind of knowledge. Perhaps Israeli education officials should be sent to Saudi Arabia to a study a recently introduced program known as "ideological security," whose purpose is to cleanse the educational institutions of the hidden agendas of teachers in the school system.

The program is already bearing fruit and some 2,000 teachers have been fired or transferred to administrative positions out of fear they were inculcating the youth with dangerous content." (thanks Farah)

"A few months ago Lydon claimed he's "well-known for being a pacifist" and named Mahatma Gandhi as his all-time hero. Surely, then, he would be open to supporting one of the most impressive examples of Gandhi's principles being put into action in today's world: the weekly demonstrations in the West Bank village of Bi'lin, where unarmed activists are regularly fired at by Israeli forces. Surely, too, he would be sympathetic to the call made by numerous Palestinian trade unions and other campaign groups for a cultural and economic boycott of Israel.Not a chance, I'm afraid."

"Cancer, leukaemia and infant mortality are all increasing in the Iraqi town of Fallujah, which saw fierce fighting between US forces and Sunni insurgents, a new survey says.Still one of the most dangerous places in Iraq, doctors have been reporting a large number of birth defects since the 2004 offensive." (thanks Youssef)

"Reservists in the Israel Defense Forces have been deployed at night to guard the vineyard of a head of the former Jewish underground in the Hebron area, a reserve officer says. This would violate the IDF's policy against guarding private property.The former militant, Menachem Livni, was convicted in the 1980s for his role in the attack on an Islamic college in which three Palestinian students were killed. He received a life sentence, but president Chaim Herzog pardoned him after seven years." (thanks Sarah)

"The IDF's Civil Administration destroyed a Palestinian village Monday morning that had earlier been cleared out when its water supply was cut off.The IDF demolished about 55 structures in the West Bank village of Farasiya, including tents, tin shacks, plastic and straw huts, clay ovens, sheep pens and bathrooms. These structures served the 120 farmers, hired workers and their families who lived in the Jordan Valley village."

"Three groups of Israeli teens facing IDF enlistment get expelled from various hotels in island of Ios after getting drunk, causing damage to property. Israel's consul in Athens says such cases cause great damage to country's image".

"After President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu met in Washington earlier this month for their most cordial meeting yet, the official complained: "Now we find the Americans talking like the Israelis without any justifications." The Obama administration, he concluded, is "confused.""

"The US military build-up in Kandahar is likely to further strengthen the hold of the Taliban over the vital southern Afghanistan city, a highly respected security organisation said today in a bleak report warning of record Taliban violence and rising civilian deaths across the country." (thanks Olivia)

Comic by Terry Furry, reproduced from "Heard the One About the Funny Leftist?" by Cris Thompson, East Bay Express

As'ad's Bio

As'ad AbuKhalil, born March 16, 1960. From Tyre, Lebanon, grew up in Beirut. Received his BA and MA from American University of Beirut in pol sc. Came to US in 1983 and received his PhD in comparative government from Georgetown University. Taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College. Served as a Scholar-in-Residence at Middle East Institute in Washington DC. He served as free-lance Middle East consultant for NBC News and ABC News, an experience that only served to increase his disdain for maintream US media. He is now professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus. His favorite food is fried eggplants.

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